Mario Party 10 is a game for the Wii U. It is the tenth home console installment in the Mario Party series, and features many reused gameplay elements from its predecessor. The game features a standard Party Mode (similar in gameplay to the Party Mode from Mario Party 9), and a new mode called Bowser Party, in which one player controls Bowser using the GamePad, and exclusive minigames can be played. Mini Stars return in normal party, as well as vehicles in all modes. The game is also compatible with amiibo.

Gameplay

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Mario Party 10 offers three basic modes of play: Mario Party, Bowser Party, and amiibo Party each with their own unique styles of play.

Mario Party

Similar to Mario Party 9, players compete to get the most mini stars while traveling through the board on one vehicle. Characters move around in vehicles taking turns being the captain and rolling the dice. A brand new feature is that Bowser is locked in the Gamepad with dice numbers. Each time the die is rolled, the corresponding lock will be unlocked (there are six locks, one for each number on the die). The player who unlocks the last lock loses half of their mini stars and Bowser will add Bowser spaces on the board. If Bowser isn't free until the "Almost There" event, he will remain stuck there and his son will add Bowser Jr. Spaces instead. Also, item shops return, this time in the form of Toad Houses, where a dice block is given to all players.

Bowser Party

Bowser, catching up to the four players.

Bowser Party is a new mode of gameplay featuring Bowser. One player controls Bowser using the GamePad, and up to four others use Wii Remotes to play against him as Mario and his friends. Mini Stars are replaced by Hearts, and the goal of Bowser is to deplete all the other players' hearts, while the goal of the other players is to make it to the Super Star at the end of the course with at least one heart between them. There are some obstacles on the path, like Whomp blocking the road similar to Perilous Palace Path.

Each member of Team Mario rolls one dice block, while Bowser rolls four Bowser Dice Blocks by default, though certain events can cause him to have more or less available. If he does not roll a high enough number to catch Team Mario, he is given the option to reroll, though the option is only given once.

If Bowser catches up to the other players, he forces them to play a randomly selected "Bowser Battle" minigame, where hearts are lost if the players are hit by his attacks. If all of the hearts from all four players should be completely depleted, Bowser wins. Normally, the minigames are fairly easy for Team Mario, but it is also likely for Bowser to become Angry and use much harder minigames. If Bowser becomes Furious via a Homestretch event, he is allowed to choose from three hard minigames.

At the Homestretch of a board, Bowser Jr. appears with a roulette for Bowser to help him (except in Chaos Castle). If Team Mario makes it to the goal, they face a challenge against Bowser Jr., in which he summons a normal enemy and a boss, and has Bowser hide the Super Star with him or one of the enemies. The player who reached the goal then guesses who has the star. If they guess correctly, they win, but an incorrect guess results in them being knocked back several spaces.

amiibo Party

In this new mode, players can scan a playable character's amiibo and play on small boards designed for that character with up to three other amiibo figurines. Players compete for the most stars, which can be bought by coins, similar to the Mario Party playstyle prior to Mario Party 9. Computer or human players without amiibo are represented by cardboard cutouts instead of amiibo. Players who have amiibos can save and use tokens, which can affect gameplay. Players can also use character tokens to swap out a part of the board to the corresponding character board.

amiibo Bonus

Players can also tap an amiibo to get bases and bonus Mario Party Points with a scratch card. However, only amiibo with Mario Party 10 data can earn bases, while others can only earn Mario Party Points. Once all of the bases are collected for an amiibo, the amiibo also gets scratch cards for the amiibo Bonus.

A tournament by rounds where eight characters participate. Each round is a minigame, and characters who remain 1st and 2nd in the minigames make it to the next round. The final round is a head-to-head battle and the winner of the round claims tournament victory.

Bowser Challenge

The player plays all ten Bowser minigames as Bowser, trying to take the highest quantity of hearts. After all the minigames are done, Bowser Jr. assesses Bowser's performance.

Bonus Games

The player can play a variety of Bonus Games here, with five in all:

Badminton Bash: Player(s) compete against the opposing player(s) to rebound the ball to their opposing court, aiming to get 21 points before their rival(s). This game can be in singles or doubles. In doubles, it is always "P1 and P2" vs "P3 and P4".

Jewel Drop: Players try to remove jewels from their case, while trying to prevent one jewel from going outside of their case. This game can be played in Solo or Duel mode. In Solo mode, the player tries to set the highest score they can. In Duel mode, players compete to see who can win two rounds first.

Bowser Jr. minigames: The player can play the two Bowser Jr. minigames: Bowser Jr.'s Clobber Cage and Bowser Jr.'s Bonk Battle. In amiibo Party, they can also be played when a player lands on a Bowser Jr. Space, where winning the minigame awards them 10 coins (sometimes the player wins a Star instead), while losing docks 10 coins from the player.

Toad's Room

Toad's Room is an extra mode, featuring a shop, a photo booth and a challenges mode.[5]

Shop: Players can buy characters, CPU Master Difficulty, vehicles for the boards, and music. Models of characters and backgrounds can be bought to be used in the Photo Booth.

Challenge List: Players can see the challenges they completed and challenges yet to be completed.[6][7] There are 49 challenges in all.

Photo Booth: Players can take photos with the models of characters and backgrounds bought on the shop. One can also send their photos to Miiverse.

Music: Players can listen to the songs bought on the shop.

Staff credits: Players can view the Staff Credits here.

Miiverse: This setting can only determine if Miiverse posts should be shown before starting a board game. When on, three posts will be shown on the loading screen.

Characters

There are a total of thirteen playable characters in Mario Party 10. Of these characters, three (Rosalina, Bowser, and Spike) are fully playable for the first time in the series (although Bowser appears as an NPC in Mario Party mode), and two (Toadette and Spike) are unlockable through the Shop in Toad's Room. Also, Donkey Kong makes his first full playable appearance in the series since Mario Party 4. In addition, Toadette returns after being the first, and currently only, character to be in one numbered Mario Party installment, removed from a future numbered installment, and then re-added in a later numbered installment.

amiibo Party

*Use of the Bowser amiibo will cause his minigames to be played instead of the normal minigames. Bowser Spaces also will not cause negative effects on this amiibo.Note: Use of the golden edition Mario amiibo will turn the Mario figure that appears on the board into Gold Mario, although he is not present in the minigames. The same happens when the silver edition Mario amiibo is scanned, but with Silver Mario rather than Gold Mario.

Board-exclusive spaces

Bowser Party only

-1 dice block for Bowser - Nabbit appears and steals one dice block from Bowser. These are very rare spaces, as they only appear in Whimsical Waters and Chaos Castle, and only four exist in the entire game (three in Whimsical Waters, and one in Chaos Castle).

Other/Mode-Exclusive Items

Tokens

In amiibo Party, Tokens can be used. The player can save them to their amiibo to use at the start of another party. Tokens spawn on the board after a star is collected, and disappear after a few turns. You can only hold one, they can be used once each turn, and each one will have a different effect. There is a total of 34 Tokens:

Mario Jump: All this does is change the movement sound? At least you can win with style!

Luigi Jump: This just changes character movement? At least you can win with style!

P Switch: You can change to a different minigame. (Can't be used when Bowser is playing.)

Bowser Jr.: Bowser Jr. gets in the way. For when you want to land on the same space again!

Plus 1: Roll and move the number shown on the Dice Block, plus 1 additional space.

1-2-3 Dice Block: Only numbers 1, 2 and 3 appear.

4-5-6 Dice Block: Only numbers 4, 5 and 6 appear.

Reverse Dice Block: You move in the opposite direction.

Slow Dice Block: It's easier to hit the number you want. For when you really need to reach a certain space!

Double Dice Block: You use two Dice Blocks. For when you need to get a move on!

Bronze: A rare Token awarded for having collected all bronze Tokens.

POW Block: You can steal coins from rivals by shaking things up with a POW Block.

Pipe: All players change places via pipes!

? Block: Double minigame coins. For when you're really serious about winning! (Can't be used when Bowser is playing.)

Bowser Space: Move to a Bowser Space. For when you really want to pick something up along the way!

Plus 5: Roll and move the number shown on the Dice Block, plus 5 additional spaces.

Reception

Mark Walton of GameSpot gave the game a 6 "Fair" score, praising for "its visuals and wide range of minigames", but criticizing for the "amiibo boards, winning is largely based on luck, as well as GamePad implementation not being very essential". [11]

However, Kirk McKeand of the Digital Spy was even more critical and gave it two out of five stars. [12]

It is the tenth best selling game for the Wii U with 1.94 million copies sold worldwide as of September 30, 2016.[13]

Pre-release and unused content

During the Nintendo Treehouse Event at E3 2014, it was claimed that Nabbit would appear to give Bowser extra dice blocks during Bowser Party. However, this was likely an early idea, as only Bowser Jr. gives Bowser extra dice, and Nabbit appears to take Dice Blocks away from Bowser.
Also in the E3 demo of Mario Party 10, the characters used Mario Party 9 winning and losing animations.

The fireballs in Bowser's Bad Breath had a different appearance, also in Bowser's High Dive it was originally made to have to the Wii U Gamepad tilt left and right, when the game was released it used the Gamepads touch screen to move left and right. Additionally in an early gameplay of Bowser Party, the meter that showed the amount of spaces Bowser was from catching up with the Mario Team, and the bar that showed Team Mario's health both had a different appearance.

References to other games

Super Mario Bros.: In the Mushroom Park board, sprites of Goombas and Koopa Troopas from this game appear as merry-go-round carriages. Additionally, Mario's amiibo Party theme is a remix of the Super Mario Bros. ground theme and Peach's sprite from this game appears in her amiibo board.

Super Mario Bros. 3: Toad's amiibo Party theme is a remix of the Toad House music from this game. After a Bowser Party is finished, the results music is the lullaby that makes the Hammer, Boomerang, Fire, and Sledge Bros. fall asleep.

Super Mario 64: Peach's amiibo Party theme is a remix of the Peach's Castle music from this game, and Bowser's amiibo Party theme is a remix of the Bowser's Road music from this game.

Yoshi's Story: Yoshi's amiibo Party theme is a remix of music originating from this game.

Donkey Kong 64: A verse from the DK Rap, originating from the said game, is used for Donkey Kong's description on the Mario Party 10 official website (see the description above, in the "Playable characters" section).

WarioWare series: The left half of the Wario amiibo board features many elements from the WarioWare series, such as Wario's biker helmet and the Wario Bike.

Luigi's Mansion: Luigi's amiibo Party theme is a remix of this game's main theme.

New Super Mario Bros. series: The fortresses and castles on the boards are based on their appearance in the games from this series. Stone-Eyes and Nabbit return from New Super Mario Bros. U, the former in the minigame Fruit Scoot Scurry and the latter as an ally to Team Mario in Bowser Party. The airship design from this game also appears in the sky board. In the minigame Bowser's Tank Terror, Bowser falls in the lava which makes him reduced into Dry Bowser, resembles how he fell in the lava and reduced into his skeletal version in World 1-Castle of the first game of New Super Mario Bros. series.

Mario Party 9: The core gameplay mechanics in this game: Mini Stars and Mini Ztars, travelling around in a car, and fighting minibosses and bosses at the middle and end of the board return. Several animations and voice clips are reused, while others are new.

Mario Party: Island Tour: After a battle minigame or a boss battle in the event of a tie the player fights for the position with a Dice Block, also in Bowser Party the player has to roll a Dice to defeat the Whomp blocking the path.

Trivia

Mario Party 10 is the first game in the Mario Party series to be given a 7+ age rating by PEGI as opposed to a 3+ rating, although this game was provisionally rated 3+ when announced at E3 2014.

Mario Party 10 is the first game in the Mario Party series since Mario Party 4 to feature Donkey Kong as a major playable character, and the first since Mario Party 5 to feature Donkey Kong as a playable character at all (with him being playable exclusively in the Super Duel Mode of Mario Party 5).

Mario Party 10 is the second game in the Mario Party series to use Dice Blocks in the event of a tie in minigames, the first being Mario Party: Island Tour. However, they only happen in the case of special events, such as Battle Minigames.

During Bowser's turn in a Bowser Party, while he is moving toward the other players, pressing the button causes him to roar.

^While the credits of Mario Party 10 listed "Kerry[sic] Kane" as providing vocal work for the game, in an email, Kerri Kane explained that it was not in fact her work: "I do know it’s not me in this game however, as when I recorded for Miss Rosalina my script contained mostly "sounds" Like when you throw an object or when you are hit by one. Lots of Hoo's and Ha's, Yeahs and Yahs, things like that, some Alrights. I think the only long [...] sentence I recorded was something like "Hmmm, Not bad" So again a sound, but with a couple words. My script didn’t have a "Here I go" or the "Let's go" that I hear from Rosalina in MP10." (March 17, 2015)